I gather that many Blackberry Bold 9000 users experience issues with their mute / standby button intermittently stopped working. It was working flawlessly at the beginning, then it became harder and harder to activate, even when pressing it with my fingernails.

I had the same problem and found a workaround that may be useful..

I managed to fix mine by sandwiching a small folded piece of Post-it Note between the plastic button on the Chrome shell of the Blackberry bold and the button on the motherboard.

Now the button is much easier to press and it seems to work every single time.

To get access to the button, you need to remove the six screws found on the inside of the back cover (that surrouds the battery). Once the screws are removed, the plastic frame should be easily removable. Then it's just a matter of inserting a folded piece of paper as described above.

I had the exact same problem. I called and had a warranty replacement sent to me. The new replacement's mute button works fine, just like new. The only problem is on the "new" one the track ball double clicks at times making closing a program a pain in the butt. I guess it's time to call warranty again.

If you use the holster and the magnetic strip puts the Blackberry on Standby for you, then you probably won't experience this issue.

I, on the other hand, don't like to carry the holster with me, so I just use a screen protector to prevent scratches and press the mute button before placing the Bold in my pocket. You do this often enough, and your button *may* have the issue described above.

@MasterMerlin: Unfortunately, I bought mine outright, so there's no warranty for me.

Same problem for me: opened Bold and realized that the button on the motherboard is not working correctly: the black plastic button moves too much in the metal house,and this results in a bad contact when pressing it.

I am trying another method: squizing the metal nails that are around the black plastic button so to reduce button moving side,so to force it to move only i and out the metal house.

I am still trying it because it does not work always good because the plastic button does not hit the button on the motherboard directly in the middle but on a side,preventing it to move in and out corrctly.

I'll try to use a post-it paper to mod this and try to hit the button on motherboard in a better position. ;)

If you use the holster and the magnetic strip puts the Blackberry on Standby for you, then you probably won't experience this issue.

I, on the other hand, don't like to carry the holster with me, so I just use a screen protector to prevent scratches and press the mute button before placing the Bold in my pocket. You do this often enough, and your button *may* have the issue described above.

@MasterMerlin: Unfortunately, I bought mine outright, so there's no warranty for me.

Different issue. The button can be pressed to mute the ringer. Regardess of whether it's in the holster.

Same problem for me: opened Bold and realized that the button on the motherboard is not working correctly: the black plastic button moves too much in the metal house,and this results in a bad contact when pressing it.

I am trying another method: squizing the metal nails that are around the black plastic button so to reduce button moving side,so to force it to move only i and out the metal house.

I am still trying it because it does not work always good because the plastic button does not hit the button on the motherboard directly in the middle but on a side,preventing it to move in and out corrctly.

I'll try to use a post-it paper to mod this and try to hit the button on motherboard in a better position. ;)

I have fixed the button by opening it (the original soldered on the motherboard) by cutting and bending out the metal cage (that keeps the plastic button inside the plastic house) so to remove the button.
Inside there are 2 tiny metallic plates that where oxidized, so I had to scratch them with a sharp knife, and then remount everything and hooking the plastic button at his place using the metal cage that I had fortunately bent out without cutting it off totally.

i know for a fact that mine is not a hardware issue. when it acts up and i can't put it in standby, i can still mute music, calls, etc with no additional force. after a battery pull, it usually works... again, no extra force, just a normal push. if it was hardware, i should not be able to use the mute button for any function. i have the most recent AT&T s/w 4.6.0.304 and platform 4.0.0.247, which was updated last week. i had the problem before and after the update.

i notice it most often after driving home and using the media player plugged into my car stereo. after unhooking everything, i try to put my phone on standby, and... nothing. i've turned the player back on and muted the music with no problem, placed a call and muted it with no problem, but it just won't activate standby mode. after a battery pull, it almost always will go into standby as usual. this is getting to be nearly every night that it happens, and is awful frustrating. it happened on my last bold too, same symptoms, same (sort of) resolution.

also posted on crackberry for the keen-eyed... reeeally would like a resolution